Dell's looking for a piece of the IoT pie and finding it's niche in The Internet of Things

The hardware maker and services provider has set up an IoT division, and the first product is an IoT gateway designed to help collect and process data while keeping it secure.

The idea is to process data at the network edge, so decisions can be made faster - issues such as managing energy consumption in device or triggering a call for proactive equipment maintenance. This reduces the time and cost associated with transferring data to the cloud or to a datacenter.

Dell also announced that it has teamed with ThingWorx, an IoT specialist. Thingworx is owned by the industrial conglomerate PTC, which in turns owns other companies which supply CAD, product, service or application lifecycle management (P/S/ALM), and IoT solutions.

According to Dell Services, ThingWorx offers "a combination of technology and business expertise to help customers reduce the time, cost and risk involved in implementing IoT applications".

Most of the work is being undertaken by the Internet of Things Lab which Dell and Intel have set up together to look into innovations like smart buildings and connected products well as "next generation insurance for customers", Dell said.